Cont..Getting to know your international contacts

My conversation partner finally e mailed me and I could not help but post what she stated about poverty:

Hi Jamie,

 In our Division and in our City there are of course issues of poverty that affect both school age and preschool age children.

In my teaching experience this has meant extra support has been required for language development, literacy development, and programs such as breakfast programs that run in some schools.

We do an Early  Development assessment (EDI) in our province that addresses needs  in areas of social development, language etc. in terms of readiness for school. This gives a broad community context and schools in demographically poorer areas have more at risk indicators. In school supports such as School Counsellors, preschool programming, family support workers and Resource are all beneficial. Students in this group also have many fewer experiences to base reading comprehension and writing on. However, in schools that I have worked in, students have been very successful. This has of course required skilled teachers, authentic learning experiences, lots of hands on experiences, strong reading writing and numeracy learning and recognition of students in many ways, or through multiple intelligences, so that they are feeling  and are successful. Interventions are a key factor, and the earlier that happens the better. Play and choice are also key components in Early Development.

Margaret

Again my partner is from Canada.